Machine for producing cellulose films for photographic or other purposes.



No. 641,623. Patented Jan. l6, I900. J. G. CHORLEY.

MACHINE FOR PRODUCING CELLULOS E FILMS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES (Application filed June 29, 1899.) (No Model.)

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NITED; STATES PATENT Fries.

JOHN CHRISTMAS CHORLEY, OF WARRINGTON, ENGLAND.

MACHINE FOR PRODUCING CELLULOSE FILMS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES.

QSPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 641,623, dated January 16, 1900.

l v Application filed June 29,1899. Serial No. 722,330. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OHN CHRISTMAS CHOR- LEY', a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Lodge Lane Bewsey, Warrington, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Producing Cellulose Films for Photographic or other Purposes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the means for producing cellulose films for photographic and other purposes; and the chief object of my invention is to enable the films to be produced in a sheet or web of any length desired and by a continuous operation.

The machine shown herein is intended to carry out the process described in an application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 709,944., filed March 21, 1899.

In carryingout my invention I employ a machine such as that illustrated in longitudinal sectional elevation on the accompanying sheet of drawings, and I employ cellulose sulfo-carbonate dissolved in water, which is known as viscose andis prepared as described in the specification of English Letters Patent No. 8,700and dated the 7th day of May, 1892. This solution is of suitable strength and is contained in a tank or hopper 2,which is placed at a convenient height above the machine and is controlled by a tap 3 for regulating the quantity of viscose allowed to fall upon a suitably-shaped perforated dropper-plate or trough 4 through the perforations inwhich the viscose passes onto the surfaceof a heated cylinder 5. I employ two adjustable plates 6, carried by the frame, only one of which is shown. These plates regulate the width of the viscose on the cylinder 5, which is heated by means of steam admitted through its hollow axle in the ordinary manner understood. The cylinder 5 is inclosed in a casing 7 and is slowly rotated by any suitable driving-gear (not shown) in the direction indicated by the arrows. The

viscose delivered through the perforated dropper-plate 4 is spread evenly and uniformly upon the surface of the heated cylinder 5 by means of a doctor-blade 8, mounted and arranged so as to be adjusted to and from the cylinder by means of a worm-wheel 9. and

worm 10 turned by a handle. (Not shown.) As the heated cylinder 5 is slowly rotated it carries forward the thin layer. of viscose, which is rapidly dried by a current of heated air drawn through the pipe 11 bya fan from. a suitable heater and traveling, preferably, as indicated by the arrows, in the opposite direction to that in which the cylinder is rotating until finally conducted away through the discharge-pipe 12. The layer of viscose in the form of a continuous sheet, web, or film is led off the cylinder 5 around a hollow stripping-roller 13, which may or may not be cooled in any convenient manner. The strip ping-roller 13 is carried in bearings in slideblocks adjustable by means of screws 14.. From the stripping-roller 13 the film passes under a guide-roller15 and over a guide-roller 16 to a batching-roller 17, which is driven by a belt 18 from a shaft 19. Brackets 20, which carry the batching-roller 17, are pivoted to the shaft 19, carried in bearings secured to a tank 21, so that the roller 17 can be raised out of the tank by movingahandle 22, cast with one bracket, and the brackets are maintained in position by a pawl 23,which engages with a ratchet-wheel 24, secured to the shaft 19. The batchin g-roller 17 is mounted in the tank 21, containing a saturated solution of boiling brinethat is to say, sodiumchlorid solution-the object of this being to decompose the soluble cellulose sulfo-carbonate or viscose and regenerate the insoluble cellulose in the film form. The film, now cellulose, when batched is subsequently washed, preferably in an open Washing-machine of any suitable type, to remove the brine and any by-products from the decomposition of the viscose, and, if desired, may be subsequently treated with bleaching reagents or dyeing solutions, and is finally dried and rolled or otherwise made up in rolls or sheets of any desired length ready for use, as required.

Beyond the stripping-roller 13 is mounted an adjustable stripping-blade 25, the function of which is to clean the surface of the cylinder by removing any viscose which may remain adhering to it, and behind the blade is mounted a piece of cloth 26, one end of which is secured to a box-bracket 27, and the loose end of this cloth lies on the surface of the cylinder 5. On the top of the cloth and containing boiling brine and abatching-roller' in the box-bracket 27 are placed pieces of paraffin-wax 28 or other suitable substance, which slowly meets and passes through the cloth onto the surface of the cylinder, which it covers with a slight waxed surface, and so prevents the viscose adhering too firmly to the cylinder.

lVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

l. A machine for producing cellulose films of any desired length consisting of a steamheated cylinder to receive the viscose material, means for supplying said material and spreadingit on the cylinder in regulated quantities, means for rotating the cylinder, a casing through which a current of hot air is drawn in the direction opposite to that in which the cylinder is rotating, means for stripping the film from the cylinder and for conducting it to a brine-tank, a brine-tank therein on which the film is wound up in a continuous sheet of any 'desired length, substantially as described.

2. A machine for producing cellulosefilms said machine consisting in its essential features of means for supplying viscose in regulated quantities and distributing the same evenly and uniformly on the surface of a 30 

